Israel said Sunday it foiled a retaliatory attack from Yemen’s Houthi rebels, a day after Israeli fighter jets struck a major port in Yemen, a strike meant to avenge a deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv launched by the Iran-backed Houthis last week.
The tit-for-tat exchanges airstrikes mark another dangerous escalation in the expanding Middle East conflict, which now sees Israel conducting military operations across the region, including in the Gaza Strip and along its northern border against Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
Israel is also believed to have carried out in April a retaliatory airstrikes against Iran after the Islamic Republic launched its own major drone-and-missile attack.
The new violence also comes just a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to leave for Washington for an address to Congress on Wednesday on the state of the Gaza conflict, which has claimed nearly 40,000 lives since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Although their relationship has been strained of late, Mr. Netanyahu will meet with President Biden and with Vice President Kamala Harris before addressing lawmakers, Israeli officials confirmed on Sunday.
It will be the Israeli leader’s fight trip to Washington since his conservative, nationalist coalition came to power in late 2022. A 2015 address by Mr. Netanyahu to lawmakers against the proposed Iran nuclear deal infuriated the Obama administration, but Mr. Biden’s top national security aide predicted this visit will be less confrontational.
“Our expectation is that his speech will be one that doesn’t look like 2015,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the Aspen Security Forum last week. “It looks like what it should in the circumstances of today, and that is how the U.S. and Israel are trying together to face down the terrorist threat to coordinate together on the regional challenges that both of our countries are facing.”
Saturday’s strike against Houthis, the first time Israel is believed to have carried out attacks inside Yemen, reportedly struck oil storage facilities and electric power infrastructure in the western port city of Hodeidah. It set off a major blaze the firefighters were still battling Sunday morning. Israeli forces said the target was chosen because Iranian arms to the rebel group were frequently shipped through that port.
Houthi medical authorities told the Reuters news agency that at least six people were killed and 83 others injured in the strikes, numbers that could not be independently confirmed.
A military spokesman for the rebel group, which has been engaged in a civil war with an internationally backed government for control of the Middle East’s poorest country, vowed to avenge the latest strike. Israeli officials said Sunday they had intercepted at least one surface-to-surface missile fired from Houthi positions inside Yemen on Sunday in apparent retaliation for the strike.
Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said the rebel group’s “response to the Israeli aggression against our country is inevitably coming and will be huge.” But Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel acted in legitimate self-defense and that other Iranian allies who are attacking Israel over the Hamas war should take note.
“The fire that is burning now in Hodeidah is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear,” Mr. Gallant said in a statement, adding Israel would carry out similar strikes “in any place where it may be required.”
In a post on X, Israel framed the strikes as payback for numerous attempted Houthi attacks on Israel over the past nine months. The Houthis have pledged solidarity with the Palestinian militant group. Tehran backs both groups.
“A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck military targets of the Houthi terrorist regime in the area of [Hodeidah] in Yemen in response to the hundreds of attacks carried out against the state of Israel in recent months,” the IDF said. The jets used in the attack were U.S.-made F-15s and F-35s.
The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel, in addition to their campaign to disrupt commercial ship traffic in and around the Red Sea. Those attacks were mostly unsuccessful, as the Houthi missiles and drones were routinely intercepted by Israeli defenses. But that changed Friday, when a Houthi drone strike hit central Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring at least 10 others.
The strike took place near a U.S. diplomatic complex.
Since January, the U.S. and Britain have led a multinational air campaign targeting Houthi positions along Yemen’s coast. Those strikes have slowed the Houthi attacks against commercial ships, but have not completely stopped them.
On Sunday, U.S. and British military officials said the Houthis repeatedly targeted a Liberia-flagged container vessel transiting the Red Sea, but the attack was fought off and the crew was safe, The Associated Press reported.
• David R. Sands contributed to this report.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.